Slow Download speeds

Yesterday my family had AT&T U-verse installed. We got a new 2WIRE Gateway. Before we had it installed the fastest download speeds we got were about 680kb/s. Naturally I assumed with a service upgrade (we previously had a very ancient speedstream dsl modem before the gateway) we would have faster download speeds. Now it’s just 720kb/s. I would like to know why is it still so slow??? I went to speedtest.net and it says we have 5.53mb/s download speed but that doesn’t seem true. I was wondering if someone could help me out with this problem. What is hindering our download speeds??
Thank you in advance for your time.
Answer #1
Reaper178 replied: I went to speedtest.net and it says we have 5.53mb/s download speed but that doesn't seem true
It is true,Speed in broadband terms & actual speed are two different things,To get the actual speed you divide the broadband speed by 8.
Reaper178 replied: Before we had it installed the fastest download speeds we got were about 680kb/s. Naturally I assumed with a service upgrade (we previously had a very ancient speedstream dsl modem before the gateway) we would have faster download speeds.
That was a mistake,You should never automatically assume that what your assuming is true,You should’ve asked.
U-Verse comes in various packages:
http://www.att.com/u-verse/explore/internet-landing.jsp?wtSlotClick=1-005280-0-1&WT.svl=calltoaction&fbid=hWd_BczgSUk
What exactly did you pay for?
Answer #2
You are confused with your terms. Speedtest is showing your download speed in BITS. When you download a file off the internet, it reports the speed in BYTES. Therefore 720 KBps download is about equal to 5.5 Mbps.
MB = Megabyte
Mb = Megabit
KB = Kilobyte
Kb = Kilobit
1 Byte = 8 Bits
EDIT: Roberto beat me to it =(
Answer #3
Ok Thanks guys. And a correction Roberto I did ask. I asked once and the ISP told me it was the modem and I asked again when the installer came in. I assumed that with the new Gateway we would get the speeds we were promised. Apparently we were getting them the whole time. And thanks SmAsHeDr for clearing that up.
EDIT: Also would you be so kind and further explain the different measurements of bandwidth to me?
Oh and to answer your question Roberto I seem to have the Elite plan. I’m not the one paying the bill however.